It is well known to provide retail services whereby a customer orders food and/or supplies via an internet site for later delivery to his/her home or other location. Most supermarkets in the UK, at least, operate such a service. Many customers enjoy the convenience that this offers and the supermarkets are able to provide additional services to customers which can increase market share and customer satisfaction or loyalty.
Most home delivery services distribute food and produce from a central or regional depot via a fleet of vehicles adapted to carry a plurality of carriers, each carrying a portion of the customer's order. The driver of the vehicle arrives at the customer's address, selects one or more carriers and delivers them to the customer. Often, the carrier is in the form of a crate, arranged to accommodate several disposable carrier bags, which have been pre-filled with the customer's ordered products. The carrier bags are handed to the customer and the crates are returned to the vehicle to be re-used later.
A recent development in delivery of products to customers involves the use of an intermediate facility where products may be delivered and stored before the customer picks them up at a later, convenient, time. This can be useful for customers who cannot guarantee to be at home at a specified time, but who are able to travel via the intermediate facility to retrieve the ordered products.
The intermediate facility is arranged to be highly or completely automated and will robotically deliver the product to a customer collection point upon request. In order to ensure that the customer's food is kept in suitable conditions, portions of the storage arrangement in the facility are chilled to ensure that fresh produce is kept fresh. Other portions of the facility do not require chilling and may be used to store dried and other goods which do not need refrigeration.
A problem arises with frozen goods. It is not generally feasible to provide dedicated storage with active refrigeration to provide storage temperatures suitable for frozen foods. There is therefore a need to provide means to ensure that frozen foodstuffs may be delivered to a facility, stored at the facility and dispensed to the customer whilst ensuring that the frozen foodstuffs remain at or below a predetermined temperature at all times.
It is an example aim of example embodiments of the present invention to at least partially obviate or mitigate the disadvantages of the prior art, whether identified herein or elsewhere, or to at least provide an alternative to existing systems or methods.